Details of Alleged Kidnapper's Shipping Container Kept Secret

August 6, 2014

(OSSIPEE, N.H.) — A shipping container on the property of Nathaniel Kibby, the man accused of kidnapping teenager Abigail Hernandez for nine months, was divided into three sections, and the prosecutor on Wednesday refused to describe one part of the container.

Associate Attorney General Jane Young talked about the container in court Wednesday because Kibby’s lawyer asked a judge to prevent police from removing Kibby’s mobile home and the adjacent container from the trailer park where Kibby lived. Kibby’s lawyer Jesse Friedman said it was necessary to keep the trailer and container where they are to preserve possible evidence.

Young argued, however, that it would cost $12,000 to put up a protective fence around the trailer and that the trailer park in Gorham, New Hampshire, might seek to remove the trailer and container for lack of rent.

She also expressed a concern that the “macabre level of attention” to the case may lead people to break into the home and steal potential evidence, which is something she says she has seen in similar cases.

“I have great concerns if we leave it there that there will be destruction,” Young said.

While arguing, Young described the container, saying it is split into three areas: “a front section, a middle section that takes up the bulk of the container and a third section that I will not go into details because the investigation is ongoing.”

Kibby, 34, is charged with kidnapping Hernandez, a 15-year-old girl who disappeared in October before returning to her mother’s New Hampshire home on July 20. Kibby has not yet entered a plea, but his lawyer said Wednesday that his client is innocent.

Hernandez was present at his charging hearing on July 29, but she was not in court Wednesday.

Kibby’s attorney complained that while he has been allowed into his client’s home, he has not been able to take any notes of what he sees in the property, nor has he been given a full list of all of the items investigators have already removed from the site.

“This is his home. The state is waving this around as if it’s a tangible good that they can pick up and whisk away. This is his home,” Friedman said.

At one point, the judge asked how old the mobile home was and if it could feasibly be moved without damaging it. Kibby was seen shaking his head and whispered a message to his attorney, who then said the mobile unit is 22 years old.

“We would have great concerns about the structural integrity of the unit,” Friedman said, though Young quickly disagreed with that analysis.

The next hearing in the case is expected to be on Aug. 12, when the attorney general will reveal more information about the search warrant and charging documents.